"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." - Robert A. Heinlein

Wednesday, May 3, 2006

I've logged a little time playing TR:L on the 360 over the past few days. I'm enjoying it so far, and may play the whole way through, we'll see. I don't do that for a lot of games these days, so that's saying something. I give it about a 75% which, looking at metacritic, is in the ballpark of what everyone else gave it.

Pros:

Recaptures the original TR feel. It's a good 3D platformer with a good Indiana Jones style story, some interesting puzzles, and a mix of different gameplay styles for different segments of the game.

Mixes up the different gameplay styles from segment to segment, so it's not too tedious. Not all the gamestyles are good however.

Cons:

For all hte talk of Lara having more *realistic proportions*, well, she (they?) are still pretty outlandish.

The quality of improvements to visuals (e.g. skin shaders, bump mapping, specular maps) seems mixed and inconsistent. Like maybe they did some, chucked some, scaled some back. And while the shaders are pretty good, it still looked like the character was somewhat undertesselated in places (eg. elbows)

Of the different gameplay modes added, there are some that are the "interactive cutscene" variety, where the player is told "Press 'A' NOW!", "Press 'UP' NOW!" to successfully make it through. OK, I know God of War had some of this and it was popular, but DID WE LEARN NOTHING FROM DRAGON'S LAIR?!?

ok, gripes aside, I recommed it if you were a fan of the first TR games.

Oh, and when looking at it in the store, the title was selling for $60, and the second hand version was selling for $55. I splurged and bought it new.